Annual and Other Reports

In 2015, the Movement provided training to over 200 rural women and community-based organizations who have in turn trained over 20,000 members of their communities in natural resource management and impacted thousands of others. Involvement in peace initiatives, smartwater projects, livelihoods, climate change, rehabilitation of degraded lands and still ensuring that tree planting remains our entry point in all that we do.

Tree planting for community mobilization and empowerment continues to be our focus. This year, we planted a total of 438,129 trees with communities around Kenya. We are also opening new groups as we introduce to the women we work with, the adoption of clean and renewable fuels and technologies.

Integrating Climate Action and Communities Using the Landscape Approach Lessons from the Green Belt Movement

Addressing gender inequality remains critical to achieving climate resilience.Some of the most effective efforts to address climate change are going on at the grassroots level far away from the negotiation tables. This is where the action takes place yet their voices are seldom heard.

This year's report reviews the re-alignment of GBM programs that has brought to the fore GBM’s work in protecting and restoring the most critically degraded watershed areas in Kenya. GBM continues to seek new ways of highlighting the critical and central role the environment plays in changing the lives of the communities we work with. Find out why GBM is more determined than ever to keep the legacy of our founder alive and to continue to push boundaries in search of transformative change.

In 2012, as we rolled out our watershed-based strategy in Kenya’s five water towers, GBM once again showed the way to preserve essential resources. As you will see in the following report, we mapped out forest areas that are responsible for recharging both rivers and groundwater serving major population areas, in Kenya, and in the region.

2011 was a year of great change for the Green Belt Movement (GBM). GBM lost its visionary founder and chair Professor Wangari Maathai in September. GBM staff and communities are determined to create a lasting legacy in honour of Prof Maathai, continuing the important work of planting trees, education and advocacy. The 2011 annual report has a special tribute to Professor Maathai, as well as key achievements during the year. Including that almost 4 million trees were planted, bringing the total number planted to over 51 million! Other highlights were the completion of a 5-year project to rehabilitate the Aberdares water-tower. GBM also participated in the United Nation’s annual climate change conference, COP17, in Durban, South Africa, and, launched the ‘Enough is Enough’ campaign against land-grabbing in Kenya. More details on these and other achievements in the report.

This year's report features details on the planting of over 4.2 million trees throughout Kenya and the launch of GBM's watershed-based approach to tree planting and advocacy for environmental conservation. Highlights for 2010 include GBM's biomass surveys of the Mau Forest and a field practitioners training session for the United Nations' REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) programme. GBM also led national civic education activities for communities in and beyond the major cities on the adoption and implications of the new Kenyan Constitution including environmental improvements as proposed by GBM.

In this year's report, you will read how GBM planted nearly 4 million trees in Kenya—including in new areas of the country—in spite of a severe drought that made tree planting and survival difficult. GBM also launched "community participatory mapping" at the grassroots, and expanded its advocacy and networking activities and corporate initiatives in urban areas. GBM also launched the Mottainai campaign in Kenya and sent a delegation to the U.N. climate change talks in Copenhagen.

Previous Reports

Open this report to learn what made 2008 a landmark year, with over 40% more trees planted than in 2007! This report also provides background on GBM's related programmes, including one that specifically connects to health concerns and the novel Peace Tent Initiative in response to post-election violence. Furthermore, find out why GBM is uniquely positioned within the climate change dialogues.

Learn about activities exemplifying GBM's work across communities, from engaging the Kenyan Army in critical efforts in water catchment areas to awarding girls educational scholarships to providing the tools for income-generating activities. Also, read about the significant accomplishments in the Mottanai campaign, and find out more about the contributions of the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) lab to planning and monitoring GBM's work across Kenya.

Read more about the genesis of several initiatives key to GBM's mission! This year marked the first full year of the Mottanai campaign, the launch of the Billion Tree Campaign, and the revelation of plans to build a fully operational Geographic Information Systems (GIS) facility. In addition, achievements in 2006 included significant advocacy work successful in preventing deforestation and profound expansion of the areas and people reached by GBM's civic and environmental education workshops and tree-planting programmes.

Discussing this first annual report detailing the multifaceted programs of the Green Belt Movement, Wangari Maathai stated, "GBM Kenya has achieved a long-held dream which has been to be able to share Green Belt Movement's work with a larger audience of supporters, friends, partners and admirers." As part of this audience, read this report to discover the decades of accomplishments and state of the organization at the time Professor Maathai received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Additional Reports

The Sustainable Tropics Alliance in partnership with Green Belt Movement has engagement on local knowledge to develop alternative, low-emission rural development (LED-R) models in the Tropics.